Moved by the community to discernment

Q: Archbishop J, what is the synod about, really? Part II

In part one of this series, we explored the metaphor of the Synod on Synodality as an operating system (OS) upgrade. When the operating system is changed, the hardware remains the same but the way the system operates is very different.

In the upgrade, the new OS pushes towards communal discernment, that is, the capacity and practice of seeking God’s will in decisions small and great. This means that groups that are part of the synodal structure of the Church—parish, finance and episcopal councils become a community of discernment to effectively lead the organisation.

This is a major game-changer and also a major upgrade of the prevailing system. To see leaders in the Church, as a leadership group using communal discernment, is a new paradigm. Furthermore, we must push further to say that all leadership in a synodal Church should be in communion with others who are seeking God’s will together as a group.

During the opening Mass of Synod 2023, Pope Francis said several times: “the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the synod”. This is vital! In the current OS, the leader is seen as the protagonist who wants to impart his or her vision to the organisation.

In synodality, the leader is the one who invites the participants to be open to the Holy Spirit to seek a path of discernment. They also facilitate and model the use of discernment skills in a process of communal discernment as they seek God’s will together.

This new OS requires leaders to understand the skills of communal discernment by exploring and learning them together with others in the leadership team. Each person in a leadership team needs to commit to learning the skills of individual and communal discernment. The assumption here is that each person has a spiritual practice that involves using discernment skills in their personal journey, in a regular way.

This is a conscious pivot of the Church and its leaders towards spiritual practice and contemplation as essential to being a Catholic. This pivot to the spiritual skills for leading in the Church anchors us exactly where we need to be moored—in relationship with the divine and open to the Holy Spirit.

This ultimately is the basic requirement of a synodal Church and synodality. We will all need to see the Holy Spirit as the protagonist of every level of Church life.

Community of discernment

Ruth Haley Barton has written an excellent book called Pursuing God’s Will Together. Her writing is a how-to guide for moving a leadership group into a discernment community.

It also goes through the skills required by the individual and by the community to move to discernment. If you are looking for a very practical how-to guide, this is a great place to begin.

She is not a Catholic, but all of her references are from the Catholic tradition and pulls our tradition together to serve the move to discernment. Listing the variety of skills required on different levels, she says:

Our spiritual practices certainly include private disciplines (solitude and silence, prayer and meditation, Scripture reading, self-examination, and confession, retreat, spiritual direction), to be effective they must also include discipline in community (corporate prayer and worship, teaching, communion, sabbath, hospitality, caring for those in need, spiritual friendship, and direction), and engagement with the world (evangelism, caring for the poor, compassion, justice, etc).

Look at the list and ask which of the skills on the personal level you feel comfortable with.

There is a realisation that to become a synodal Church we need to learn new spiritual skills, which will serve the Church by unleashing a new vitality and energy within the Body of Christ and in the leadership. The key skills for synodality are the key skills and discipline for the contemplative life.

The real foundation

The real power of the Church is the depth of discipleship of its members and leaders. This pivot to the contemplative will make discipleship a significant focus in the pew and amongst the leadership group.

People who have been part of the synodal structures will now be invited to learn spiritual discernment, prayer, contemplation, and communal discernment. This is exciting.

Think of any real challenge at the level of parish or diocese, how we make the decision currently. When we meet, we have a prayer to begin.

Is that prayer integral to the matter for discussion?

Is the matter for discussion framed as a matter for discernment with clear guidelines or Scripture to pray with?

Have the participants received the matter for discernment beforehand and spent time with it in prayer and in prayer for each other to find God’s will in this matter? These are the key movements in communal discernment.

Conversation in the Spirit

When there is a matter for discernment, it should be framed that way. It should be clear what is at stake and what are the underlying issues that contribute to the situation as it currently stands.

Also, if there is a biblical passage or principal text that speaks to the matter, this should be outlined in one page. The participants should be given the outline of the matter and asked to pray over it before the meeting. They should also pray for the process.

Before the formal discernment begins, each participant should pray for holy indifference in the matter. That is a desire for God’s will and not their personal agenda to win out.

When the group meets, each person is given THREE minutes to share their perspective of what God is speaking on this matter. After three people speak, pause to pray.

After the first round, each person is given TWO minutes to speak on where they were moved as they listened during the first round. Here we speak about consolation and desolation which are movements of the spirit.

By focusing the second round on the interior movements, the group begins to discern where the Holy Spirit is active in the first round of the conversation.

The following questions may help: How was I moved in the Spirit … by an insight, an image, an emotion, a desire? Was I moved with gratitude, or compassion, or contrition? Again, there is a pause each time three people speak.

In the third round we move to the collective discernment—what did we hear? In this round, the group, facilitated by a scribe, puts down what they heard when they were moved in the second round.

The conversation moves from I to You to We. The first round focuses on what I heard God asking. The second round of what I heard from you moved me as an action of the Holy Spirit. The third round is a synthesis of what we collectively have come to see.

A simple template for the third round is to record (1) what are our points of convergence (2) our points of divergence and (3) areas for further reflection and study.

Each time I have done a Conversation in the Spirit, there have been significant interior movements in the participants. This leads to a sense of consolation and ultimately to consensus and joy about the outcome of the conversation.

Key Message:
The upgrade of the OS to synodality moves the leaders in the Church to be anchored in their discipleship, learning new spiritual skills: communal discernment and seeking God’s will above everything else.   

Action Step:
If there is a serious matter in your parish, family, or group, use the model above to do a communal discernment. Pay attention to the interior movements.  

Scripture Reading:
Romans 12:1–5